petals rain on the black and red wings
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: Ruri's gone missing, and Shun and Yuuto are on the search for her and her captor. But thanks to a certain professor, the Ruri they find isn't going to be the same at all. Her captor isn't going to be the same as the boy they'd chased, either. Nor are they the only ones chasing him.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** For Higuchimon, because it's entirely her fault this happened XD. Or only half her fault. I actually have no idea why Kurata decided he wanted to work behind the scenes, but oh well.

Written for:

Advent Calendar 2016, Day 25 – write a gift-fic (DMWA)  
The Crossover Big Bang 2016 (DFC)  
Becoming the Tamer King, Steamy Jungle Task (DFC)  
100 Prompts, Up to 100 MCs Challenge, #078 – fungicide (DFC)  
AU Diversity Boot Camp, #047 – permissible (DMWA)  
Another Mega Prompts Challenge, writing prompts #120 – series containing fics (in the main series) 25,000-50,000 words (AMF)

* * *

 **petals rain on the black and red wings**  
 _Chapter 1_

.

They're in the flower gale without a care in the world and Yuuri smirks, because evidently they've never met a flower like his. If they had, they wouldn't be so carefree in a gale where any flower could rise up and bite them, or dust them with pollen or a great many other things once one knew how. A bird's eye view became quite a useless advantage in this scene, when even hawk-like eyes can't tell the difference between a flower and a flower _head_ –

And, really, that's the price one pays for looking with only their eyes. They can't hear it: the leaves whispering to each other, the closed heads singing to themselves as they count down to the moment they snap their petals open for their prey, and the way they fall silent and rub almost silently against each other in glee when it's almost time.

They've stopped singing now. It's almost a pity and it's certainly over far too quickly. The bird falls without even a sound, because for all that she has wings, she's far too close to the ground. The girl manages a shriek – high and piercing and calling knights that really are too far away to be of any use at all – and then she crumbles.

A tittering arises from the field as Floramon rears up, and standing at her full height she can't be mistaken as a part of the flower gale anymore. She titters and sharp petals open and close and he can see the trembling from her form. She wants to crush them like fruits and berries and drink their soup but they really are too big, and too troublesome. She'll chop them into bite-sized pieces if given the time and the patience but the world can give her all the time it wants and it won't curb her impatience. They're not interesting when they're not moving, after all: not wriggling around and scurrying about like little insets trying to hide beneath the foliage and he's the same. He'd much rather let the other two catch up to him and then lead them on a merry chase, but a job is a job and he's promised all the world's playground as the end reward.

And so he picks them up: the girl and her songbird as well, and the gale is still and silent for a breath before her knights trample in, far too late.

 _I'll see you again, far too slow knights. I'll see you again and then we'll have some fun._

.

They don't hear Ruri anymore. Ruri who can never be still and rarely quiet too. Silence is for talking, and if they don't talk, they sing or hum. Make the birds dance. Make the flowers open their petals and sway to and fro even when the sun lags. And they can silently walk with her and bask in that – and laugh at her varying attempts to mimic the birds.

Now she has her own songbird and it is all the more amusing when they try, because the digital world birds are really very different from the human world's. And Shun knows well enough; he has his own bird: with black feathers and it suits him well. He is the watcher from the shadows, watching his sister's back and she is the bright, fiery one who dances in the light.

Brother and sister with two birds: black and red. It suits the pair of them just as well and then there's Yuuto who has a dragon the colour of Ruri's hair and Shun will start teasing him about that coincidental connection when he's adjusted to the idea a little more. And when Yuuto stops blushing every time one of their other friends brings it up and gets himself into gear.

But he's a little grateful too, because it means his role as her protector is still his and his alone. Even if Yuuto is almost always with them now. Hanging out with them more often. Even staying over more nights than not and Shun's a little disgruntled there as well, even if he knows it's his social skills or lack thereof that's the reason he hadn't moved in with them years ago.

At least now one of them wouldn't laugh or glare when reminded of how Yuuto had thought Ruri to be another friend of Shun's instead of his little sister. But they're all practically family anyway. It doesn't matter as much as it used to.

So long as everyone knows that Ruri is number one in Shun's books, it doesn't matter.

And they do know. It doesn't mean Shun will ever stop worrying when she's out of his sight, even if she really is only a little far ahead.

And he does worry, because he can't see the gale she loves from here and he can't hear her either. They're here alone. She should be singing her lungs out and see if the fabled Hououmon will descend to the world if she sings well enough, even if he suspects that's Allen pulling Sayaka's leg. But she's not, and that might mean nothing at all. That might mean she's picking flowers instead, or brushing Hawkmon's feathers but she can't do even those things quietly. She always hums along.

And then they see the gale and its empty and both Ruri and Hawkmon are unmistakable from the dust of flowers. Beautiful colourful flowers but they barely pass Ruri's shoes in height and even if she was lying flat and buried in them, they would have seen her.

He dashes into the gale and their pollen coat his own shoes. 'Ruri! Ruri! Answer me.'

She should come out from somewhere, laughing. 'I'm here, Ni-san. You worry too much.' But she doesn't. No-one answers, except Yuuto echoing his own call and only making him worry more.

Falcomon flaps his wings and the frail flowers scatter at his feet as he takes off, but even he finds nothing and Monodramon is no good at all. He can dig through the flowers and find anything they drop but he can't fly and he can't dash across the plains with the speed of Kaito's Lightdramon either. He only stumbles like them and Shun is gripping his digivice tightly enough to break his skin with its edges now but Falcomon just circles the sky and sees nothing.

There's no enemy in their faces to fight. And it's always so much easier when there is.

And there's no Ruri right in front of them either, where she should have been.

'She's not here.' Yuuto punches the ground as best he can and it's pathetic, really, with the bed of flowers soaking up the blow. Little petals stick to him. 'Damn it, how did this happen? Where is she?'

The sky is clear except for Falcomon flying high above them… And that's the question, isn't it? The ground may as well have opened up and swallowed Ruri and Hawkmon for all they can tell.

'We'll find her.' Shun is glaring at that silent sky, towards Falcomon whose birds-eye view gave nothing. 'We'll find her.'

.

He hears them, yelling her name over and over but she's still asleep. Floramon's pollen has ensnared her tight and Yuuri allows a grin to himself as he listened: her gentle, even, breaths and those calls: raucous like bird calls. And he can see a bird in the sky as well but that's useless. Don't they even know the layout of this world? The gale sits on a hill and there's plains all round but there's a village to the south and a forest to the north and a forest is the perfect place to hide from the eyes of a bird. They think they can see all, from their vantage point in the sky but the canopy's pulled tight over this forest –

And, anyway, they've never met Cherrymon.

He's more than happy to take advantage of the fact that Cherrymon has something of a green thumb as well and so a soft spot for Floramon. Just as he's more than happy to take advantage of Floramon's unique talents, even if it's disappointing she can't go in for the kill herself without a human weapon to augment her. But that's okay with him. He uses them too. Always has. It's another passion they share together and, really, blades are all the more sharper when there's a smattering of poison or paralytic or something that's almost a drug in the human world as well –

Because far too many people think to fight what they can see, and that's it. But then they fight him and learn that it's never a quick and easy fight with him, because he prefers to chew them up when they're alive.

Metaphorically speaking, of course, because the human constitution isn't really made for eating other humans, and certainly not for eating them raw. Or so they think until they're desperate, truly desperate – and once he'd been there, and it's a taste he doesn't really want to let go of.

Still, they can sacrifice things like if the alternative will have them locked up somewhere far away and this job is pretty good. Kidnapping helpless little girls might be boring, but listening to her shining knights clamour around clumsily as their brains rattle in their skulls is pretty fun. A brief, diluted, fun – but the way falcon-boy screams, it sounds like he won't stop hunting and maybe his brain will click into place and make the race even more fun.

He's Kurosaki something or other. Oh well. He'll find out eventually, or else the guy won't make things fun at all.

And it doesn't look like they'll be coming to the forest anytime soon, so it's time to go.

'Goodbye, Kurosaki. Come and find me when you have the time.'

And then he opens and closes the gate, and they are gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**petals rain on the black and red wings  
** _Chapter 2_

Dennis is waiting for him in the laboratory and he's grinning and his Dracmon is grinning too. 'Nice going,' he says and he claps his hands together. A reflex action, because he touches everyone but he knows better than to touch. Floramon's head is a fly-catcher after all and stray hands are the flies, and even if she can't snap through skin and bone like a butcher's knife, her petals clamping down one's hand _hurt_.

And Dennis knows that better than anyone, because it's constantly getting stuck in that which has taught him so well. But he still hasn't learnt to keep his distance from him entirely, but Dennis is useful and so Yuuri lets him hang around.

Besides, Dennis takes the boring surveillance jobs and turns them into something fun, and that lets Yuuri have his fun and nobody else really does that. He's a tough customer after all and the world is intent on keeping him wrapped up with his rules.

At least the Digital World gives him some freedom. And then came along the Professor. And he could dispose of targets however he liked and it was all legal, all safe, none of it liable to have him locked up before he's had his fill of the world. And he gets to kidnap helpless little songbirds as well and dangle her as bait for game – though, truthfully, that's not in the job description. That's him adding an afterthought to the letter.

But the Professor's not complaining. He has the girl. Or he will once he dumps his baggage off and he heads right that way, with Dennis trotting after him and asking questions and adding his own observations from before into the mix.

Things like how the older brother's name is Kurosaki Shun. And the other guy with him is probably a Yuuto with no family name and Yuuri just shrugs at the lack of a surname because isn't he in the same boat? A cute little orphan abandoned by the world and so he became a demon. Or someone said that anyway. Who was it anyway? A police officer? A case worker? Some random passerby who's been listening to gossip because they've nothing better to listen to?

When Dennis says Yuuto had reminded him of Yuuri though, Yuuri just laughs.

Dennis doesn't know him that well at all.

.

They can't find her anywhere. Even when they leave the gale and comb the surrounding areas, when they split up and call everybody they can think of to help out, in both worlds. And it's ridiculous to even consider the human world because there are precious few ways in and out of the Digital World and they're all closely watched and so they know for a fact that Ruri hasn't passed through any of them.

And they can't even comb the Digital World from top to bottom to make absolutely sure she's not here first. It's simply too big and they know too little about it. They're still mapping out the place and now Ruri's vanished into a blank zone and they can only continue to explore the world and hope she shows up again.

Shun hates this decision, this course of action. It's too slow, and leaving far too much to chance and yet what else can he do? He can look and look and look and then just stumble upon his sister again but that's leaving it all to chance as well, isn't it.

He hates that. He hates it but there's not a whole lot he can do about it. Falcomon can fly but he doesn't have wings and Falcomon, when evolved, can't carry him for very long. They have to search by foot for the most part and it means they can wind up walking in entirely the wrong direction and, what's worse, they're not allowed to wander off alone either. Like they'll be the next ones snatched up and maybe that's rightful caution but if that takes him to Ruri, he sees no reason to go out of his way to prevent it.

He only feels bad afterwards when he realises that, by sneaking off in the middle of the night with Falcomon gliding silently above, he's more or less left Yuuto alone.

At least he has Monodramon.

It's not like last time. Not at all.

.

The Professor's pleased. And has a new job for him and this one is more fun and so it's back to the Digital World for him. For Dennis too but he goes a different way, is after a different target and Dennis will be gone for a while with this one but that's fine. Dennis isn't a friend, after all. Just an acquaintance. One of the few tolerable ones in the world.

Though he's being slightly intolerable now, laughing as Yuuri signs for another two gate disks. 'You workaholic,' he teases, even though the both of them know full well that sitting around isn't Yuuri's style at all. It bores him. And when he's bored, he creates his own fun and that's trouble for everybody around. So the Professor keeps him busy and it's lovely because he can get such wonderful jobs from it all, such fun jobs. 'You could at least eat lunch first.'

'Floramon makes better soup in the Digital World,' Yuuri shrugs, and that's the truth – in a way. The taste of data is relative, after all. Even if it can't quite replace the real thing but he'll get his chance, and it will be perfectly legal and acceptable and he won't have to face white padded walls at the end of it all. He'll be free, and again and again and again…

'Of course, you'll pick of steak from somewhere too, won't you.' Dennis shakes his head and he barely looks disturbed at all; he's even the one who's brought up the topic.

It's almost a pity. If they'd met a few years back, they might have actually been friends.

'Well, have fun.' He flips a wave and heads off. He needs to go through the more conventional challenges for this job, after all.

Yuuri grins. 'Always do.'

.

Yuuto is plenty pissed when he wakes up, because there's only Monodramon curled up and snoring away beside him. Shun and Falcomon aren't there and they're supposed to be. They're supposed to be keeping watch, at that. Anything could have attacked them in their sleep and decapitated them before they even realised what was happening.

He doesn't know whether to count his blessings or not that such a thing didn't happen. Guilt leaves more lasting impressions, after all.

Still, he owes Shun a punch the next time they meet. Or two. Because Shun still doesn't seem to have learnt that he's not the only person who cares about Ruri when things go wrong. And he also hasn't learnt to watch his own back. He just flies ahead and breakneck speed with tunnel vision, with eyes on Ruri and whoever's been involved in hurting her, and them alone.

He wakes Monodramon who realises how lonely it is too quickly and curls into himself. Monodramon who can't fly and can't even yet evolve to the Adult level, like Falcomon can. Monodramon who's bright and cheerful and Ruri's best friend on a good day (because brothers and partners and love interests all fell into their own categories and all of them got a name from Ruri).

'Did they leave because we're holding them back?' Monodramon asks sadly.

He's wondered the same thing himself, but he knows better. Or he thinks he knows better. In any case, he prefers his own one: it's less crippling, more dutiful – and he was right the last time. And it's how Ruri feels as well.

'If we're holding him back, it's a good thing. So he doesn't go and do something stupid.'

'Like not wake us up before he left?' Monodramon blinks. 'Or is that Falcomon showing off his ninja skills again.'

That's Ruri's fault. Entirely Ruri's fault, that Falcomon has been dubbed a ninja by Monodramon, though it's Falcomon who creeps around and appears so quietly at times they never hear him leave or come. Compared to that, Monodramon is clumsy and loud, but he never goes flying so high he can't hear him and can barely see him anymore.

They all have different things they look for in a partner, and different things they love their partner for. It's fate that's selected these partners for them, perhaps, but they're a perfect fit regardless and that's fine. They can't see the ministrations of fate's hands, after all. What future they achieve is the one they've worked towards and when there's a thing called fate involved, it only means they couldn't have made a different choice in the past, even if they regret it now.

It just means that time spent in regret is wasted time. Time spent grumbling at Shun when he's not here is wasted time as well. And the ideal thing would be to look for Shun, who's looking for Ruri, or else look for Ruri directly – but they're still wandering around blind. What good is a goal with no direction? And he doesn't even have the means of searching a wide area like Shun does, or Sayaka or Kaito or even, to an extent, Allen.

But they're all going so fast, they might up missing something obvious…

And that's it. 'Monodramon, we're going back to the flower gale.'

'Okie dokie.' Monodramon perks up, because they have a course and a destination now, and aside from the family that's grown around them, that's the most important thing.


	3. Chapter 3

**petals rain on the black and red wings**  
 _Chapter 3_

.

Ruri wakes up and it's an unfamiliar place and far too white. There's barely any colour to be seen except her hair tumbling down her shoulders. Even her skin is far more pale than is normal for her and she's plenty pale as it is. And her clothes are nowhere she can see.

She panics, at first, before she realises the fog that wraps around her shields her modesty as well. If she can see no-one through the white, then they can't see her as well. But now that she's realised that, she also realises she's in a far more enclosed place than she'd initially thought. It only takes a bit of crawling and feeling about (and, really, that's all that she can manage because she's still trembling badly even though she's not cold and can barely move at all). It's a cylinder of some sort.

Her nightmares have certainly taken a turn for the strange if she wakes up in a cylinder.

.

The Professor is watching his latest subject. She's up now but still groggy, and confused, and she can't blame all the confusion on the concoction she's sniffed either. He wonders if she's realised, yet. Floramon's pollens can be quite noticeable if one knows where to look… But then most of the evidence will have been on her clothes and she doesn't need them right now. They'll only be in the way as he collects more data and works on his next move.

He already has an idea. He doesn't do anything without being fairly confident it will succeed because working on ideas that are sure to fail is just a waste: waste of resources and a waste of time as well. Some people enjoy splurging on those wastes. People like Yuuri are useful because of it, and people like Dennis who do more than simply tolerate it. And he needs people like that because he won't do it all himself.

Or he needs people like that _now_. Not forever.

He won't be playing with devil arts forever, either.

.

Shun finds nothing. They've headed north and they've been on their feet (or wings, in Falcomon's case) until his calves are screaming and Falcomon is hopping from tree to tree instead of gliding past. They should stop soon. He knows they should stop soon but the part of him that's screaming Ruri is in danger and needs him won't let him do that.

It's foolish but love and worry make people do stupid things and he knows this. He knows it very well and yet he goes and does the exact same thing again.

But when he really can't walk anymore, he sits down on a rock and Falcomon leans against it and closes his eyes, and they remember they've left Yuuto and Monodramon behind. Asleep. Without a watch, without any protection.

 _Yuuto… You should know better than to trust me. Again._

Still, he hopes nothing's happened – even if it is too little, too late. They don't own cellphones or anything fancy like that. They've always meant to save up for when they go their separate ways but it's a mix of practicality and the lack of desire to actually split apart –

But then something happens and they do split apart. And wind up all alone again.

He can only hope nothing happens to Yuuto and Monodramon before they wake up and realise they've been left alone. And he can only hope that Hawkmon is with Ruri, and that they're safe, wherever they are.

.

Hawkmon isn't with Ruri. It's the first thing she realises when she wakes up. Ruri isn't anywhere nearby at all, even after she calls: their special bird call when they're fighting, or sneaking about the forest trying to catch someone or something. Their special bird call that won't give their position away to their enemies if they're heard, but will to their allies.

But they're not in a forest and it isn't that effective now but she does it anyway, out of habit. And there's no reply.

Then again, she's trapped in glass and has no way of knowing if she can even be heard outside this prison of hers. She can barely see anything at all, with how the glass has frosted up with some sort of white fog or smoke. It's an odd sort of smoke as well: dense enough to make breathing a little more of a chore than it has to be but only if she concentrates, and human enough to be warm. She can't guess its purpose though. And she can't keep it away from her either, despite her wings. The enclosed space is too small –

And she can only do one thing then: try and break the glass. And then find Ruri and return to everyone else.

.

Yuuri appears in the forest again. It's not necessary but purposeful anyway. Not only does the forest have meat-apples in it, but he can peak in on the two knights in shining armour and see what they're up to. Unless they've wandered completely off. But the meat apples come first, because Floramon can process them as they wait amidst the trees and they can eat before they're bored. And then leave when they are, because they're not really cut out for surveillance gigs.

Luckily, they don't have to be. There is someone in the glade. Only one of the two and it's not Kurosaki. It's the guy with the Monodramon instead. Yuuto with no family name. Standing exactly where Kurosaki Ruri and her Hawkmon had been when he'd nabbed them – and it was such a shame that Floramon isn't in position to take them out too. It would've been such a fun prank.

But there's another one he can play. 'Go ahead, Floramon,' he says, and watches her scamper out. 'Tease them a little, won't you?'

And he'll stay in the forest and watch and then scamper off because he wants to dangle a bit of carrot in front of them, and not the entire pie.

Otherwise it'll be over too quickly and good entertainment is hard to find.

.

Yuuto and Monodramon stand in the centre of the gale: Ruri's favourite spot. There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary at first but Monodramon is sniffing at the flowers and then he spots it. Powder scattered over the petals, but not from the flowers that grew there. Ruri knew the flowers best, of course, but Shun and Yuuto had been there plenty of times as well. None of the flowers in the gale had that orange pollen.

'It smells like a digimon,' says Monodramon.

'Does it now?' asks Yuuto, straightening up. The digimon were temperamental. Some loved the humans. Others hated them. Others still were indifferent and beyond that, there were groups with their agendas. Some structure to the world they were only slowly starting to pierce together. But if the digimon uses a powder based attack, they can at least narrow their scope. Only insect/plants do that, right? And it made sense, for a small one to be able to hide in the gale. He'd heard of the Palmon playing a prank on Sayaka but they'd been pretty harmless in the end – and had had the living daylights scared out of them by an angry Allen before the mess had been sorted out.

He scans the flowers. They look the same but he doesn't have a photographic memory of them. They sway gently – no, wait. His eyes narrow. They're not swaying at all. They're rustling, and a small patch of them at that. A small, moving patch.

He kneels and whispers to Monodramon. Monodramon grins. 'Tiny Tornado!'

His aim isn't quite spot on, but only because the Floramon panics and runs.

Yuuto runs after it and Monodramon after him, because it's definitely suspicious, too suspicious. Floramon is a digimon that can use powder based attacks and now it's lurking around in the gale and fleeing from them? And –

Into the forest. They were idiots to not think to search there as soon as they'd noticed Ruri wasn't anywhere in view nearby.

.

The glass won't break. Hawkmon tries until she starts to bleed bits of data and then she has to stop because her desperation is simmering and slow and not enough to power her up to the next level. If she knew where Ruri is, it'd be different. If she knew Ruri is in danger, it'd be different. But she doesn't and Ruri's not here to lend her strength otherwise. Ruri's not here and she doesn't know where Ruri is, or what she's doing, or even what happened at all.

What did happen? They'd been in the gale and then… She couldn't move. And now she's sluggish and slow and maybe that's why the glass won't break, because she's not at full power again yet. Or maybe the glass won't break even then. She feels as though she's been pecking at it for hours but there's nothing. Not a dent. Not a crack. Not a bit of hope to tell her to keep on trying, to not sink to the bottom of her glass cage and wait.

She can only hope to regain her strength and wait. Wait for someone to come, or for the glass to crack. Wait for Ruri to come to her, or some news as to her whereabouts. Or for someone to just gloat. Because they'd been captured. That's for sure. And surely, whoever had captured them would come to gloat, whatever reason they had.

.

That's the question Shun asks himself, as he starts moving again. The only question he can ask himself because everything else slips away from him like water, or sweat rolling down his forehead and his chest and back. Why. Why Ruri and Hawkmon? They're not even the most dangerous of their group. If it's sheer power, it's Allen. If it's strategy, it's Kaito though Shun prides himself on being a close second. If it's rationality, it's Yuuto. If it's kindness… Well, he pegs Ruri for that but he's biased. The more objective view might be a three-way tie between Ruri, Sayaka and Yuuto, but at least he knows Yuuto can have his back in a fight.

It's not that he doesn't trust his little sister. He just never wants her in a situation where she _needs_ to protect his back because that's his job: to protect her.

And he's failed, miserably. And he doesn't even know how, or by whom, or why.

He doesn't know anything. Not a thing at all.


End file.
